He had never won a match in the main draw of a Grand Slam tournament before New York, and playing under lights on the Louis Armstrong Stadium, albeit in front of a sparse crowd, was a far cry from the Challenger events he is more used to.

Evans impressed in the opening set but 31-year-old Robredo's experience told as he edged it in the tie-break, then raced through the second in just 28 minutes.

Defeat was not far away for Evans at 4-4 in the third but he got the vital break with a sharp backhand volley, pumping his fist as he made his way back to the chair, and served out the set to love with an ace.

Analysis

"I was sure the match was heading to a fifth set but Dan Evans just tightened up. After missing those set points in the fourth, he started rushing a bit, showed his inexperience and made a couple of bad shot choices.

"It is such a shame for him, but once he gets over the disappointment there is no doubt that there are so many positives. It looks like his career is going to go to another level after this tournament."

Things seemed to be turning Evans's way when Robredo spent the next two changeovers having his left thigh massaged, but the Spaniard fought magnificently in the fourth set.

Evans was bristling with positive intent, moving forward at every opportunity, and twice broke to go ahead, but, serving at 5-3, 40-15, the nerves appeared to bite and he gave the set points up with a double fault and an error.

Robredo sensed his chance and pounded away from the baseline, drawing two more errors to recover the game and, after a solid hold, the pressure was quickly back on Evans.

From standing on the verge of a fifth set, Evans was now serving to stay in the match, and a wayward drop shot and a double fault brought Robredo to match point.

He closed in on the net to chase down another drop shot and leapt upon the Briton's response to angle away the volley and bring Evans's amazing US Open campaign to a sudden end.

"It's been a great experience, a great learning curve," added Evans, who heads to Croatia next for Great Britain's Davis Cup tie on 13-15 September.

"I can definitely play with these guys so I should be confident going into the next tournaments."